Russian newspaper: Russia provided money for PKK

HDN | 2/28/2000 12:00:00 AM |

Russian Moskowski Komsomelets newspaper said that the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency, gave $10 million to the PKK in the mid-1990s, as part of its effort to distract Turkey's attention from Chechen war Ankara - Turkish Daily News A Russian newspaper, Moskowski Komsomelets, claimed on Saturday that the Russian military intelligence agency, GRU, had provided financial support for the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) a few years ago, the Anatolia news agency reported. According to

Russian Moskowski Komsomelets newspaper said that the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency, gave $10 million to the PKK in the mid-1990s, as part of its effort to distract Turkey's attention from Chechen war

Ankara - Turkish Daily News

A Russian newspaper, Moskowski Komsomelets, claimed on Saturday that the Russian military intelligence agency, GRU, had provided financial support for the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) a few years ago, the Anatolia news agency reported.

According to Moskowski Komsomelets, the amount of financial support channelled to the PKK was $10 million.

The newspaper said that the GRU decided to encourage the PKK, when it discovered that Turkey was likely to side with the Chechens in their war against Russia that started in 1994. By providing assistance for the PKK, the GRU tried to distract the attention of Turkey from the Chechen war to the increased terrorist activities of the PKK in Turkish territory.

The newspaper went on that the money transfer to the PKK was carried out in the Netherlands and that a former high-ranking GRU officer, Gen. Kapranov mediated, in the transfer.

Kapranov left the GRU and took a post in the Russian Central Bank, from which he subsequently transferred some $10 million to the PKK, with the mediation of a Russian businessman, under the disguise of a fund necessary for the construction of an information center for the Bank.

According to the newspaper the Russian Central Bank was a suitable source of finance for the Russian intelligence agencies at a time when the government was unable to provide the money they needed, since the supervision mechanisms on Central Bank accounts were weak.

But the newspaper said that the current investigation launched into Kapranov and the Russian businessman involved in the transfer of money was unlikely to be fruitful, since the case concerns one of the most important secret operations by the GRU.